Orkut helps solve a murder

BY Ashutosh Nayak| IN Digital Media | 30/05/2007

Ashutosh Nayak

Orkut, hitherto a platform for social networking, has emerged as a source of information gathering for security agencies to crack mysteries such as  the murder of TCS engineer Koushambi Layek in a Mumbai hotel recently.

With the portal offering innumerable features such as creating own profile, scrapping, writing testimonials, creating own album, uploading videos etc, the user happens to leave a good deal of information including his/her photograph and mobile number for the alien viewers.

As a result, the site for social networking that keeps titillating the young generation is in the news for all the wrong reasons. An example: ?Youth misuses classmate¿s profile, posts lewd scraps?, reported Mumbai Mirror on September 29, 2006. It is not long ago that Mumbai police launched a massive drive to crack the alleged network supporting terror elements through the ?communities? in this portal.

However, in the latest incident involving the murder of the TCS employee, Orkut has become a tool for investigating authorities who were otherwise clueless of the crime as well the relationship between the victim and the ¿prime suspect¿ of the murder, Manish Thakur.

While most of the friends of the duo kept mum considering the complexity of the issue, police got a tip-off about scraps on Orkut through a common friend which, in the long run, helped the investigation to a great extent. Reported Indian Express (Newsline, May 15, 2007): ?Another friend, Rohit Monga who also works with TCS, said: Thakur had once scrapped on my Orkut account saying that he is Koushambi¿s friend. I would not like to say anything more as I am in a state of shock.?

After navigating through their profiles in Orkut, police came to know that ?Koushambi met Manish via the Internet four years ago,? reports Mumbai Mirror.

Writes the Telegraph (Calcutta edition: May 16, 2007): ?Koushambi, too, was all praise in a testimonial she had written for Thakur in Orkut, the popular networking site. He¿s a really caring and loving guy, it read. Her own Orkut profile said she loved watching detective serials,? concludes the paper.

In fact, the victim¿s love for detective serials was treated as a punch line by the newspaper considering the lack of any further details on the probe. The intro of the story in Telegraph reads like this: ?Koushambi Layek loved watching detective serials. Today, Mumbai police are trying to solve the mystery behind the 24-year-old¿s murder.?

The role of Orkut in speeding up the investigation is best reflected in The Times of India (Mumbai edition, May 17, 2007: ?Cops claim vital leads in case?). The inset with headline ?The Net Angle? had more details to justify the Orkut connection. ?Manish Thakur, the navyman wanted for Koushambi Layek¿s murder, had also got in touch with her colleague in March-end through a social networking site. He had taken her cellphone number, besides that of two other male colleagues.?

The paper quoted extensively from Orkut to give its readers first-hand information about the victim unlike most of the other dailies. ?Her profile on social networking site says she was fond of pets and sports like cricket and carrom. The Alchemist was one of her favourite reads.?

Explains a frequent Orkut visitor: ?In the emerging scenario, Orkut has not only become a source of information gathering, but also a platform for free expression.? The ¿connection¿ with the murder of the TCS employee is an offshoot of the fact that both the victim and the ¿suspect¿ fall in the same age bracket and use Orkut as an important mode of communication in their daily lives, he adds.

However, most of the newspapers have failed to wake up to the larger issues around  the entire episode such as the risks involving social networking, whereas little known bloggers have managed to raise their concern quite effectively.

Explains the writer on http://luvquotes.blogspot.com: ?This incident again points towards the hazards of social networking.? However, it further adds, ?It perhaps will not be a very good idea to blame this social networking website. But this incident definitely shows the flipside of social networking on the Internet and the best thing one can do is be careful while using it in order to avoid unpleasant incidents.?

As visitors to the profiles of the victim and the ¿prime suspect¿ of the murder are frantically posting messages (as learned from http://blog.sameerhalai.com/), it is likely to raise concerns such as the impact of such postages on the investigation.

http://blog.sameerhalai.com/ aptly captures the concern: ??The above post shows how they found the accused individual frantically requesting phone number of another individual which has raised doubts about the potential involvement of someone else. ?.It surely highlights the importance of scanning social networking sites in addition to emails and web-access records to gather evidence. Is it harmful for investigation proceedings and speculations to be publicly available like this? As our lives become more public through these social networking websites, we probably want to reflect on what information about us people may get in the future and whether we are comfortable having our information available in ways we do not foresee today.?

(The writer can be contacted at: nayak.ashutosh@gmail.com)